Writing a Teaching Philosophy of Education
Spend Time ReflectingBefore you sit down to compose your statement, take a few minutes to conduct some self-reflection. It is helpful if you have a pencil and some paper to jot down your thoughts and keep them organized. Ask yourself a few questions and answer them as honestly as possible.
Make Sure Your Statement Is Well BalancedWriting your statement is tricky.
- Why is teaching important to me?
- Why do I want to teach?
- What do I believe about how people learn?
- What do I think effective teaching is? How will I teach effectively? How will I measure my efficacy?
- How can I apply principles of learning and educational theory to my teaching?
- How do I assess student learning?
- How do I assess my effectiveness as a teacher?
- What are some concrete examples of how I put my philosophy into practice?
- What teaching method(s) do I use most often? Why don't I use other methods? Why do I believe/know my methods are effective?
- What aspects of my teaching can I improve on?
- What goals do I have for my students? What should they be able to accomplish after my class? How will I know if they meet these goals?
Make Sure Your Statement Is Well BalancedWriting your statement is tricky.
- You need to convey your passions without sounding flaky and fake.
- You should offer concrete examples of teaching methods, disciplinary situations, and classroom management, but you also need to avoid sounding set in your ways and difficult to work with.
- You need to sound like you provide student-centered education without coming across as too lenient and anything goes.
- You have to present yourself as someone who can get students to pass the end of course testing without seeming like you'll just 'teach to the test.'
Teaching Philosophy Statement TemplateYou can approach your statement as a typical five-paragraph essay. Break each section into additional paragraphs, as necessary, but make sure to address the five critical points outlined below. If you prepared adequately during the self-reflection activity above, you should be able to plug your answers into the template below.
I. My aspirations, goals, and objectives as a teacher and my goals for my students are:
I. My aspirations, goals, and objectives as a teacher and my goals for my students are:
- How will I encourage mastery, competency, life-long learning, meaningful learning, critical thinking, etc.?
- What are my beliefs about learning theory and how will I apply specific educational strategies in my classroom?
- Do I plan to use case studies, group work, simulations, interactive lectures, projects, or other instructional methods/tools?
- What do I believe about grading?
- What types of assessment do I use? Traditional tests?
- Papers, projects, presentations?
- How can I use student evaluations to improve my teaching?
- How can I learn new skills and improve my teaching methods?
- How will I know if my teaching is effective?
- Why is teaching important to me? How will I collaborate with my colleagues?
- How will I manage my classroom and discipline?
- What else do I want to point out about myself?
How To Write a Philosophy of Education |
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